The spinal column is a highly complex interconnection of individual bones coupled together to provide, among other things, protection of the nervous system, while also enabling collective movements in a plurality of directions.
Due to various genetic and/or developmental occurrences, including diseases, developmental irregularities, trauma, stress, and the like, the spinal column may require surgical intervention. To protect and/or aid in the recovery of a surgically repaired section of the spinal column, there are often situations wherein it is desirable to collectively restrict movement of one or more bones of the spinal column.
Immobilization of a section of the spinal column may be achieved using a variety of known surgically implanted support systems and methods, such as use of posterior surgical implants comprising one or more implantation rods. In general, a surgically-implanted rod is fixedly attached by first threading one or more anchor screws to a pedicle of one or more vertebrae of the spinal column. Each anchor screw is in turn fixedly coupled to the implantation rod at proximate locations along its shaft.
In certain patients, it may be desirable to increase the support and torsional rigidity of the surgically-implanted implantation rod system. These situations may require not only support on the side of the spinal column that is attached to an implantation rod, but also torsional rigidity and support collectively between the implantation rods. To achieve this, patients have been selectively provided with surgically implanted cross connector systems to couple between two implantation rods.